A new generation of affluent customers demands a new way of marketing luxury goods and services.  Millennials on the road to affluence don’t want their father’s or their grandfather’s luxury; they want their own!

The coming generation of affluent luxury customers brings a whole new set of expectations and ideas about what luxury is and how it fits into their lifestyles.  This requires marketers to dig deeply to understand their needs, wants and desires.  Starting with new consumer insights, companies can build new strategies that translate into new product and services offerings, as well as innovative branding, marketing, distribution and sales tactics appropriate for the next generation.

Marketing luxury in a new style to the next generation takes more than just a change in tactics, like building a new website, using social media or being mobile enabled.  It takes a strategic vision guided by consumer insights.

Millennials on the road to affluence want home furnishings designs and styles that fit their lifestyles and unique point of view, like Lovesac Sactionals

When it comes to home furnishings, millennials on the road to affluence are shaping up to be a practical, value driven, and cost-conscious generation, rejecting ostentation, extravagance and traditional thinking about decorating their homes.  They value functional design and ideas that enhance their lifestyles.  They want furnishings that work with their lifestyle, not require them to rework their lifestyles to fit the furnishings.  That is what makes Lovesac’s Sactionals line worth studying.

Lovesac is a brand that grew up with the millennials, offering beanbag chairs for kid’s dens and dorm rooms.  And Lovesac could have continued on its same course furnishing the dens and playrooms of the millennial’s children.  But they decided to create a new concept for their grown-up core, millennial customers.

While boomers were once known as the “Me-Generation,” millennials have taken it to a whole new level.  They are a generation raised on self-expression about everything, including their own skin as it has become a canvas for personal expression and creativity.  This is where Lovesac’s Sactionals furniture fits.  It satisfies their emotional drive for self-expression in home furnishings that adapt to all different room sizes and life stages.

Lovesac offers a uniquely customizable take on conventional upholstered furniture.  Its Sactionals are described as a cross between “upholstery and Legos™.”  Sactionals consist of two basic upholstered pieces that can be combined in any configuration imaginable — no tools necessary.

Sactional furniture also expresses a performance vibe as well, delivering an experience in both design and function.  With washable covers, Sactionals are guaranteed for a lifetime and because they come apart, are easy to move from place to place.  They can fit into any size spaces, with models offered for open-concept large-scale rooms, as well as smaller apartment-sized homes.

But, some might say, Sactionals aren’t luxury.  Excuse my frankness, but it is that kind of traditional ‘conventional wisdom’ thinking about luxury that will hold a business back, even kill it.  No doubt, the same was said about Restoration Hardware, which under its new “RH” incarnation is taking away a huge swath of business from old-style luxury home furnishings brands.

Sactionals are decidedly not luxury in old-luxury style, but with a starting price over $2,000 for a basic loveseat configuration, Sactionals are pricey for many young couples starting out.  The luxury of Sactionals is built into its add-on flexibility that allows the furniture to grow and change as the couple’s needs change.  The ultimate luxury of Sactionals is in the experience it offers the customer, not in some old-fashioned idea of what luxury furniture should look like and be priced at.

How to market home furnishings in new luxury style for the next generation of affluent customers

Luxury is a mindset, not a price point or brand.  Unity Marketing has studied the affluent home furnishings customers, both the customers for today and tomorrow.  We offer a range of research reports and research-led services to help brands explore their opportunities to sell to the customers with high incomes and discerning tastes.

• Get started: From Unity Marketing’s Affluent Consumer Tracking Study (ACTS)  surveys, we spin off Snapshot reports which provide the basic facts and figures about the affluent home furnishings customers, who they are, what goods they buy, how much they spend, where they are shopping and what motivates their purchases.   One, Furniture, Lamps & Lighting, and Floor Coverings Snapshot Report, is focused on the home furnishings products bought; another, Affluent Shopper Snapshot Report: Home Furnishings & Furniture Stores, focused on the affluents’ shopping experiences; and the Home Furnishings Snapshot Package combines both reports at a reduced price.
• Dig deeper: This luxury trend report, Cocooning in New Luxury Style: How the top 20% shop for & decorate their home and ways for businesses to prosper, lays out the plan for marketers to grow in the new post-recession home furnishings market. With detail data, the report reveals how Americans are “cocooning” in a new style combining fashion and function to create a safe, comforting and stress-free environment.
• Create a plan: Unity Marketing leads with research to give marketers access and understanding of the affluent home furnishings customer.  We provide both qualitative and quantitative insights into the affluent consumer market for your home furnishings brand or shopping experience. Learn more about our custom research services by clicking here. 

Not sure where to begin?  Call Unity Marketing 717.336.1600 or email pam@unitymarketingonline.com to learn how research-focused insights can provide the competitive edge in the extremely competitive home furnishings market.